I focus almost exclusively on PvP, whether solo, small gang, or large bloc warfare. In the past, I've been a miner, mission runner, and faction warfare jockey. I'm particularly interested in helping high-sec players get into 0.0 combat.

Thursday, December 31, 2015

A year and a half ago, I did a snapshot review of the ships
I have fitted up in all of Talvorian’s ship hangars. It was an idea I stole
wholesale from Ripard Teg; he used to do it every year, and I thought it was
such an interesting idea I decided to take it for myself. The differences
between this post and the last one are striking to say the least!

Unlike Ripard, though, I don’t name my ships anything
interesting. I’ll chronically terrible at identifying ships by their icons, so
I use their names and a group of different icons to help me remember which are
fleet, gang, and solo ships. It really helps sift through why I bought them in
the first place.

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

The day after Christmas, the family headed down to OceanCity
for a quick one-day vacation with some relatives. It was a nice get-away. The temperature was a nice 70°, which was a
little too cold for surfing (though the waves were awesome), but perfect for
just enjoying the environment. In a 24-hour period, we went miniature golfing
three times and ate out three times, in addition to having some quiet time away
from the kids. Epic day.

But with that singular exception, I had a lot of time on my
hands to sit down and just play Eve. Not
write about it, not focus on the drama or opening salvos of the CSM campaign
season, but just play.

I try to make a little time each month to go off on my own
and have a little solo fun. It’s easy to take Eve in two different directions.
On the one hand, you can quickly find yourself inundated by fleets to
participate in, and because a great many alliances don’t explain what the
mission is for each fleet, you can tend to waste a lot of time on meaningless
structure grinding, counter-entosis fleets, or strategic ratting.

But then there are those solo roams and small gang
opportunities that are just delightful. The kinds of sessions where you just go
back and forth avoiding gangs and killing targets you can find. The pure
delight of just playing is reinvigorating, and I strongly recommend that you
try it.

Thursday, December 24, 2015

CCP spends a lot of time working on features that have
wide-ranging effects on the game. But it’s nice to see that they don’t neglect
the little things, either.

I just fell for a null-sec procurer bait trick, and managed
to escape with a nearly burned out MWD in about 80% hull. This was the first time I escaped a fight in
hull, so it was the first time I could see the new hull damage effects for
myself.

I absolutely love the new pock-marks and burning circuitry. It’s
one of those features that helps you feel as if you’re really living in this
world. Immersion, I believe, is what the
kids call it these days.

But that wasn’t it. When I docked up to repair the damage, I
expected the image of my ship to suddenly shift from a damaged ship to a
repaired version, the way it does when you swap ships. But no, instead, the damage gradually repaired
as if nanobots were running along the hull and effecting repairs. It wasn’t
immediate at all, but rather gave an organic feel to my ship “healing”.

That’s one of those features that absolutely was no
necessary, but shows that CCP takes their work to a whole new level. It’s a
neat little treat for players that didn’t make it into a dev blog or even get
any media attention.

But somewhere, there was a group of designers who a) thought
to put that in, b) fought for time to develop it and “went to bat” for it with
management, and c) spent man-hours designing and testing it, all so we’d feel
more like we were playing a fully fleshed out game.

CCP, if you’re reading this, please let me know who we
should give credit to. I hope they see this, and know how much we appreciate
little touches like this. Somewhere, in a weekly meeting following the
holidays, I hope someone brings up this little bit of appreciation so they know
that their efforts directly improve my experience. Without them, this game just
wouldn’t be as awesome.

I'm thankful for a lot of things in my life, and while Eve Online is hardly the most important one, it is a meaningful one. Over the past year, we've had a lot of turmoil and frustration as a community. Our play styles have been disrupted, and we've been force to take in a lot of change.

I do believe that change is all for the good. The game needs to expand to grow, and you do need to break a few eggs to make an omlette. But that doesn't mean it's all going to be easy. In game, this year was a difficult one. On my part, it saw me make a pretty dramatic change by changing corps. It was hard decision, but while the players in my old corp would make me stay, my overall dissatisfaction with the circumstances being constantly reinforced within the CFC compelled me to leave. It was a hard one, though.

More generally, though, we've all been dealing with that awkward period before a big change when tension and frustration slowly mounts. Some of us are close to making the hard choices between expeirence and achievement in-game. Others decided not to choose at all, and simply stopped logging in. Hopefully, 2016 will see your love for this game outweigh your weariness at the political baggage we sometimes load onto our backs. Just remember the fun, the joy, the glee of flying through space shooting each other. We'll be here for you.

But despite all the tension and discomfort, I've also seen love, openness, and friendship. My new bros in TISHU accepted me with open arms. Sure, they can shitpost with the best of them, and are masters at trolling folks into the ground, but they're also friendly people and welcoming of outsiders. And for that, I'm truly thankful.

So, as we sit back and reflect on the year past, I hope nothing more than that you recall the good, forget the bad, and look forward to the great times to come. 2016 is what we make of it, and while we can't control what happens TO us, we can control how we REACT to it. Here's wishing you a happy holiday and the strength to meet all that is to come with an open mind, an iron will, and the absolute faith that your future can be as bright as you hope!

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

We've all had some experience with hermit crabs. They're little crabs that seek the shelter of a conveniently local shell to live in until they grow too large and search for another, larger option. It's a balancing act between their size and their legs' ability to carry around more weight. So, every so often, you have to provide new, larger shells for your little critter to move into. One night he's scurrying around in smaller shell A, the next morning he's lumbering about in larger shell B.

It makes me wonder, what is it specifically that makes him decide, "Yup, I gots to move to a new house." I'm sure there's a perfectly clear bodily reason why - perhaps the old shell starts to hurt and instinct drives him to look elsewhere. It's probably a pretty straightforward decision without much thought.

That couldn't be more different from pretty much everything we humans do. Often, change follows an exhaustingly thorough analysis of every nitpicking little detail, and we're still often uncomfortable with the decision until we see the effects some time down the road. I'm probably more guilty of this than most, what with my penchant for thinking things through more than is probably necessary.

So, when I sold off one of my PvP characters and decided to re-purpose Valeria, I'm sure you can imagine that it wasn't a simple decision. In the end, it was all about choices - the hallmark of Eve - and some of the upcoming changes about selling skillpoints and character sales.

Saturday, December 19, 2015

I don't talk about the CSM that often. It's not out of any specifically strong feelings. In fact, I've recommended that folks vote for CSM in the past, and mentioned how important I thought it was. But I typically don't follow their exploits with bated breath, or even read CSM summary posts by other bloggers.

Part of that is my firm believe that we as a society apply democracy a bit too liberally. Not everything needs or deserves a vote. Sure, I think it's the finest system in the world for organizing a government for citizens who are location-locked into a specific country. The key, though, is that everyone involved in that country and in that democratic system has equal amounts vested into the success of the enterprise, and equal amounts to lose if they get it wrong. Democracy needs seriousness and a deep familiarity and awareness of the issues, as well as no readily available and easy-to-access escape plan.

That said, it's a terrible idea for a lot of other things. While you may take your kids' feelings into account, you make decisions about them bilaterally (or unilaterally in single-parent homes). They don't get a vote, because they don't have the context and knowledge necessary to make an educated decision. Nor do you give airplane passengers a vote on the route the pilot should take.

When all parties aren't equally vested, you also don't utilize democracy. My mother wants to redesign her living room. I used to live in that house, and have somewhat of an interest in keeping it looking good. I also want her to eventually move out to where my family is located now, and I want to keep the house in good repair for them to sell it at a profit. But while I am slightly vested in how the living room looks, she's the one who owns the house, and she's living in it day-in and day-out. Her level of vestment is much higher than mine. It'd be ludicrous of her to give me an equal democratic vote with her in how the living room looks. Nor am I going to make career decisions because two of my friends - outnumbering me - feel I should.

Then, there's the "bail option". When you're tied to the success or failure of an endeavor, you'll take it much more seriously than when you're passing through. I shouldn't have an equal vote as a hotel owner about how their room looks. I have to live there for one night; that hotel owner's very livelihood depends upon making design decisions that ensure profitability for decades, potentially. She's not going to let my wife and I out-vote her about how her hotel is designed.

Along the same lines, democracy is a ludicrous method for a gaming company to choose a trusted user group.

Friday, December 18, 2015

You may have heard that "station games are over", but that might not have meant very much to you. And you may have been vaguely familiar about a certain class of ship - Command Destroyers - changing the game in many ways during fleet fights. The theory goes that Command Destroyers will be instrumental in separating support wings from their main column of dps ships. And I can certainly see this happening to reduce the safety players feel while in fleet.

But that's not where players are going to feel the sting of Command Destroyers. That honor goes to station camping.

In the past, players would undock to see what's happening outside of a station, perhaps move around a bit and allow an enemy or two to attack them, then dock up again before they hit armor. It's called "station games" when you're toying with the aggressing force. It's called trying to get out of a station when you're not.

Command Destroyers' micro jump field generator spool-up time is around five seconds for most players. While the MJFG doesn't affect players who haven't broken their undock immunity, it does affect players who are aligning off station. So, now, if you change direction, activate a module, or do anything to break your immunity, you can be flung 50 to 100 km away from the station (depending on the direction the Command Dessie is facing and where the station is) and unceremoniously massacred.

Monday, December 14, 2015

The act of moving is a surprisingly complicated one. Not only do you need pack up your stuff and
unpack it at the other place – which takes at least twelve or fifteen hours in
and of itself, for a small move – but you also need to go through a number of
simultaneous processes at the same time.

First, you have the “keep or toss” debate about every object
in your house. As you spend time in a
location, you accrue. Some of the things
you gather is “stuff” that is useful.
Some is “shit” that was formerly useful or the result of a temporary
lapse in judgment. But each item has to go through that analysis. I spent the last five days doing exactly
that, and carted off two cars’ worth of “shit” for the dumpster.

At the same time, you also have the chance to “re-roll” the
layout and positioning of everything. Always felt your dishes were
inconveniently located? You get another chance to lay it out more efficiently.
For me, I was never happy with the layout of my living room furniture, and now
I’m able to redesign it a lot better, without spending a dime.

But, all of that is incredibly taxing, and this move – even
though it’s a mere ten minutes away – has sapped me of any energy I might have.
All of that is, of course, a roundabout way of saying, “Sorry for the drought”
for the past few days as I moved.

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Just a quick note... the art of holding your tongue is a delicate one. Sometimes, drama erupts that is so amazing that you want to become involved, but shouldn't. So, I'm not going to weigh in on the drama currently erupting on reddit, among several other blogs, and TMC.com in regards to Sion's continued self-assassination and attempt to demonize reddit as a means of keeping Imperium members from reading and being influenced by that community. I'm going to just sit back and watch. Sorry, guys.

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

No, you
haven’t stroked out and you aren’t suffering delusions. Why don’t you have a
seat so we can talk. I think you have a problem.

Over the
course of the past few days, I've been traveling through Guristas space hunting
for ratters, miners, and other assorted PvE players. I talked about why I chose
Guristas space in my last post, but as I started writing it, I realized I
needed to do a separate article about best practices when ratting. I’d be
remiss if I didn’t at least try to help.

Having
spent about four years in the CFC, I did a lot of Guristas ratting, first in
Pure Blind, then in Tenal, Deklein, and Vale. I have three Tengus fit for
Guristas ratting that allow me to run cosmic signatures and escalations solo
(including Mazes and No Quarter III). So, I know a thing or two about fitting
for kinetic tank. You really only have to avoid roaming gangs, and I’m about to
tell you how. Lean in close. Are you ready? The process is complicated and
incredibly advanced.

Sunday, December 6, 2015

Over the course of the past few days, I've been traveling through CFC territory hunting for ratters, miners, and other assorted PvE players. I didn't select this area of space because they were CFC pilots, but rather because CFC territory perfectly aligns with Guristas ratting territory. Pure convenience.

Having spent about four years in the CFC, I did a lot of Guristas ratting, first in Pure Blind, then in Tenal, then in Deklein and Vale. I have three Tengus fit for Guristas ratting that allow me to run every cosmic signature and escalation solo (including Mazes and No Quarter III escalations), so I know a thing or two about fitting a kinetic tank.

And I learned - through hard lessons - exactly how squishy those ships are to, say, EM damage. They're like ripe fruit just waiting to be plucked, and more often than not, they ave faction modules fitting to them.

On the other side of the PvE spectrum are the miners, who I'm classifying as both rock-munchers and the haulers that support them. These pilots are actually more durable, since the rats that spawn are very weak and the greater threat comes from roaming pilots, but pose less of a challenge and risk. Miners must operate in locations that are easy to warp to, be it belts or ore anoms, so the chances of catching a miner are higher than of catching a ratter. But miners are generally more aware, and aren't as arrogant about their safety; having no weapons tends to make one more cautious.

So I decided to use that PvE knowledge I had to exploit the weaknesses in those ships and cause a little damage.

Friday, December 4, 2015

Over at the Ancient Gaming Noob, Wilhelm Arcturus presents some very insightful thoughts about the current state of the Imperium that very clearly represent my thoughts about the only remaining coalition. In it, he pretty clearly represents the lack of purpose behind the Imperium these days.

When one person says a thing, it's an opinion. When two people say it, it's a fluke. When dozens of people independently come up with the same statement, it's a groundswell. Wilhelm's comments exactly represent the reasons I chose to leave the CFC and join Adversity.

More and more, folks are realizing an inevitable truth; having won Eve, the Imperium finds it self as a weapon without a target, bereft of purpose.

Monday, November 30, 2015

I want to mention what I’m not going to talk about. I’m not going to discuss what I think all the
TMC.com and RMT stuff means. I’m not
going to weigh in on my opinions about deriving RL profits from Eve
Online. I’m not going to discuss Endie’s
supposed leak.

That doesn’t come from a lack of opinions about it. On the contrary, I have very strong opinions
about it, what it means for the game, and what each of you should think about
it. No, I’m not going to discuss it
because – ultimately – none of that matters.

In the end, each of us establishes a sense of what we
believe is right and what we believe is wrong.
We each identify what we believe benefits and what damages the game as a
whole. And we each make judgments about
what we want to be part of. I’m not
going to get up on a soapbox and declare why I do what I do in this matter.

I made the choice to simulcast some articles for TMC.com for
250 mil each, the same agreement I had made with EN24 previously. I’m not going to sit here and criticize their
business plan if I’m participating in it.
I can tell you that I’ve never witnessed or heard about anything even
resembling RMT through the Trello, Slack, and web portal discussions,
interactions, or posts. Admittedly, my
“level” is at the very bottom, so don’t take that as a statement that no RMT is
going on; I simply haven’t seen any evidence of it first-hand.

But that’s not why I’m refusing to write about it; that
decision comes from the fact that nothing you, I, or anyone else says about it
matters. The only opinion worth a fig is
CCP’s. It’s their game, they control the
rules, and they adjudicate through an impenetrable wall.

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Years of complaints. Hundreds of thousands of unequal solo battles. Enough tears to satisfy the water needs of
the Syrian refugees for the next ten years. Heaps of travesty piled upon the very manifestation of abuse.

For years, we were told, “Changing the code would be too
complex.” We were given words like
“legacy code” to focus our hate upon.

Let’s take a moment to bask in that. From about a month or so from now onwards,
for that ship to go 8 km/s, you’ll have to see the links on grid with you. They’ll be exposed, vulnerable. And many of them will die. No longer can the same boosting ship survive
for years on end. And no longer will
links be an automatic win button that simply can’t be defeated.

Sure, there are the obvious advantages to solo pilots. Fighting in a FW plex will be a fair fight
now. Solo and small gang pilots will be
able to see what they’re facing, and can even attempt to head-shot enemy links
now. With the advent of T3Ds, expanded
probe launchers are more common now, and that makes every ship on that grid a
viable target.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! One of the grand traditions of
Thanksgiving in the United
States is the early close. Companies all
across the country shut down around 1-2 pm instead of the usual 4-5, giving you
a few extra hours to use as you see fit. We celebrated Thanksgiving last
weekend when we went back home, and we’re only doing a slight dinner today. The
kids were happy at preschool, so the wife and I took some time for ourselves,
which, meant setting up for an adventure later that night.

Recently, I made the decision to head on into Guristas space
and make a play at killing ratters. I resisted doing so out of a lingering
sense of loyalty for more than two months after leaving the CFC. Somehow, it didn’t
feel right to simply charge on over there and start popping ratters and miners.

I wanted to leave a little time so all of my services and
APIs dropped, and allow time for folks to shift around their assets and habits
enough that I wouldn’t feel as if I was using any special knowledge from my CFC
time. It’s one thing to kill your former alliance mates – that’s understandable
and acceptable. It’s another to use your knowledge of them against them. I
remember sense of outrage I felt when a corp once left Razor and, on the way
out, immediately began camping systems and killing folks; it seemed
underhanded.

But, after two months, all is fair. So I packed up a
Stratios and headed up to Venal to cause a little mayhem. The entertainment
value of killing CFC PvE folks does not disappoint, nor did the famed CFC
response time later that night.

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

My new alliance, Psychotic Tendencies, uses Siggy. I love Siggy, even though my past use of it
was limited to three weeks between CEI and RP when I was part of Sky
Fighters. As a tool to gather
information and save time, it’s invaluable.

Siggy is a cosmic signature mapping tool that serves as a
central repository for sig scan information among a corporation or
alliance. Curious what cosmic signature
XYZ in system A is? Click on that system
in Siggy and see if anyone in your corp had previously scanned it down. When mapping wormhole chains, it works like
old-style D&D graph paper, allowing you to map your routes effectively and
easily.

More often than not, one of the first things I do when I log
in is to check for wormholes in our home system. I’m looking for anything that shortens the
way to Jita, or serves as a conduit to feeding grounds. Typically, I’m looking for low or null exits.

You can imagine how delighted I was when I woke up and
checked Siggy to find this:

That’s a tremendous amount of work, most of which was done
by a single person in my corp. He’s my
new best friend.

Those of you who have been following action in null-sec
recently will note one particular hole… a direct connection to a system in
Cloud Ring, where the content lived (up until the Imp deployed there and
smashed it with a mountain). There’s
still some fun to be had, though, including a brave ladratting in a
Vexor in an anomaly with numerous neuts passing through (I’m not going to link
it out of respect for his brass cojones).

Without me logging in and seeing that robust chain mapped
out in Siggy, I wouldn’t have gotten that kill.
If you travel through wormholes with more than just yourself, it, and
the programs like it, are content-generators.

Have you folks played around with Siggy or any of the other
mapping tools? What’s your
favorite? Give me your best
“content-creation” story!

Friday, November 20, 2015

A lot of Eve players operate under the principle that losing
a ship is somehow a negative, and should be avoided at all costs. These players view it as a negative ledger
item, a debit in the overall accounting books of their character. That’s one way to look at PvP, but it completely
misses the point.

Ultimately, PvP is about squeezing enjoyment of the
game. I view it as the end game because
it’s the only activity in Eve (other than giving your isk away or buying plex)
that consumes resources by nature, when done effectively. Everything else accrues assets, but without
something to spend that money on, there really isn’t a point to that exercise. Getting rich matters because of what it
enables.

And the best PvP enjoyment happens on the edge, when you’re
facing long odds and still manage to pull out a victory. Not only is the victory sweeter when it isn’t
certain, but when being defeated by greater numbers or stronger ships, you can
avoid the “regret” and “anger” stages of the process and get right to learning
what you did wrong and improving. After
all, if you take a fight you should probably lose, you can’t very well get mad
at the result, right?

Monday, November 16, 2015

I wasn’t anticipating writing another article until I
finished a Lessons post, but I just had to write about the experience I just
had not two minutes ago.

It all started innocently enough. I logged into to find TISHU knocking around a
few ping-pong balls in Cloud Ring. So, I
jumped into a Heretic, caught a titan bridge, and made my way there.

It started as a gate camp farming all sorts of traffic
between two Pandemic Horde systems, and it started to morph into some entosis
fun a few jumps away. I had just put up
a bubble to kill a Catalyst,
and was a little behind the rest of the fleet.

I was picking clean the carcass of my last kill when a
Kestrel landed on the edge of my interdiction bubble, so I burned into him and killed him,
just as a few of his friends arrived.
They had warped in from different vectors, so I had a little space
between me and them… long enough for me to warp off. However, the Kestrel got me into very light
armor, about 95%.

As I bounced safes, I switched overviews to scan for
bubbles. My out-gate was clear, so I
started making my way out of the system towards B-D, six jumps away. At the time, I felt I was having a pretty
good night. All of my kills were small
gang, and we were having good fun in someone else’s space. It was exactly why I joined Adversity (well,
that and taking 8 gates in a fleet of Archons to kill Tempest Fleet Issues).

Saturday, November 14, 2015

Several months ago (or is it a year? Who can keep it straight anymore?), CCP re-bonused
some of the pirate frigates and cruisers and rebalanced a whole bunch of
them. Amid the changes, my dear,
precious Cynabal, suffered some nerfs.
There was much weeping, and many tears.

On the other hand, the Worm and Gila were given purpose
again, a welcome change from the ignominy they wallowed in for the several
years prior. But, in providing them with purpose, CCP went a little too far,
making both of those ships best-in-class damage dealers. The Worm can easily get 250 dps and the Gila
can breach 850 dps, both while kiting. Suffice
it to say, they’ve quickly dominated all of the fleet comps because of their
significant advantages.

On the other hand, have you ever tried fitting out some of
the other pirate ships? It can be quite
a challenge because of powergrid and CPU issues. Typical fits don’t quite work,
and often need both CPU and powergrid 603 implants even with maximum skills…
something which simply can’t be done. So, while the Gila and Worm became
powerhouses, the remaining pirate frigs and cruisers always remained less than
they could be as a result of “not quite enough” syndrome.

And, worst of all, one of my favorite ships, my dear,
beloved Cynabal, was left to rot from nerfs.

Thursday, November 12, 2015

The first enterprising souls have gone on Sisi and
identified some new ships available for review; the command destroyers (inb4 we
call them “commies” or “codies” (CoDes… though I doubt Code will use them). These
ships are new T2 destroyer, a class sorely needed to make interdictors feel
less alone.

The first thing I noticed was how stupid the name Stork was
for a ship. It stretches credibility that they’d name a ship something as
un-threatening and docile-sounding as “stork”. Jackdaw… okay, even if they took
the name from Assassin’s Creed. Herons and buzzards aren’t threatening birds. I
get Eagle, Vulture, Raptor, Vulture, Griffin,
Raven… they all sound bad-ass. But “stork”? I suppose it’s terrifying to think
someone’s going to drop a baby off on your doorstep, but…

The second thought I had was how cool it was that the new
ships all focus on delivery, motion, or projection. Pontifex suggests
“pontificate”, and projecting opinions. Storks are responsible for babies. Magi
project power through magic and mysticism. And the bifrost is the coolest
bridge in the history of literature (though, the Bridge of Hrethgir
and Pons Sublicius are pretty awesome, too). It’s a pretty neat naming
convention.

The reason for that, of course, is the cool new ability
command destroyers are going to have… the ability to serve as a mobile micro
jump unit, projecting all ships within its effective radius 100 km in the
direction they’re facing. That’s right boys and girls, ALL ships, both friendly
and hostile. Need to scatter an enemy logi wing? Just burn directly for the
logi anchor and spool up your mobile jump module to scatter them from their
fleet.

Monday, November 9, 2015

Here's a question for the community. What essential characteristics define an enjoyable PvP experience for you?

Do you need to face an enemy that has a chance of killing you, or do you enjoy catching your target unawares? Do you enjoy large fleets, or do you prefer fighting solo? Are there specific kinds of ships you prefer? Where do you prefer to find your PvP?

And, here's the big question: Which of these are truly essential? If you had to boil down your PvP preferences to that which is common to all of them, what would remain? What really satisfies you?

And, just as importantly, when you hear someone brag about or post a kill in local, what aspects make you want to reach through the screen and strangle them for bragging about it?

What kinds of fights give you the shakes? Let me know in the comments!

Saturday, November 7, 2015

I'm selling a Thanatos and a Naglfar, if anyone would like them. Both are located in Ihakana.

The Naglfar includes 20,000 hydrogen isotopes and 3 Capital Trimark Armor Pump I rigs and is listed for 2.6 bil. The Thanatos includes 20,000 oxygen isotoles and 3 Large Capacitor Control Circuit I rigs and is listed for 1.45 bil.

If you're interested and reference that you saw it on this blog, I'll take 100 mil off the Nag and 50 mil off the Thanny. (You can either accept the contracts as-is and I'll reimburse you, or I can pull the contracts and private-contract it to you; the former will be faster, the latter more secure).

Friday, November 6, 2015

This is not a post about nerfing high-sec. Not at all. In fact, my argument isn't going to be about player engagement, income distribution, or any of that stuff. I just want to talk about a cool thing I thought of while replying to a comment on the reddit post for my last article. To do that, I'm basing my argument on a bit of logic and some lore.

First, some context. CONCORD exists to apply precise "rules of war". In part, it also serves to protect the empires from capsuleers, who cannot be killed permanently and represent a borderline xenophobic threat to the empires, even as they represent the empires' key way of fighting each other.

But, Concord (no caps anymore, too annoying...) also serves to manage intel and payment for activity against pirates, as well as classifying the security status of every system of New Eden. Yet, Concord hasn't revised it's security status calculations in a very long time. To the point, they haven't revised them in response to the discovery of wormhole space, the change in customs office ownership, sleepers, drifters, and the general weakening of the military forces of the empires, both in comparison to the past and to capsuleer empires. A full fleet of capsuleer titans is a thing, yo.

I think it's high time Concord revises it's security status calculations to reflect this shift in power away from the four main empires.

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

You should all stop what you’re doing right now and read
Neville Smit’s latest post about the silent half of Eve players who may never make it to Fanfest or speak too loudly in the community but who
still play the game just like we do.
This is a post about giving a little love to the non-PvPers. Pay attention to what he says; his point is a
critical one.

Seriously. I’ll wait.

“But Tal, are you seriously suggesting CCP should focus some
attention on PvE?”

Yes, yes, I am. And
it’s absolutely critical for the PvP game you play that we not forget about
these players.

Saturday, October 31, 2015

So, the patch notes for Parallax are out. It’s a fairly light patch, with a lot of fixes
and user interface changes. I honestly
don’t see much that excites me. Go ahead
and read the notes if you’re interested in the minutiae.

But there were two changes that actually made me gasp as I
was reading through the preparing the kids for Halloween.

The first is one CCP apparently can’t do much about. The new code they’re rolling out over the
next few patches includes some adjustments in how various calculations are
performed. One of those changes is to
how bonuses are applied. As a result:

Fleet bonuses from the
skills Leadership, Skirmish Warfare, and Information Warfare are now stacking
penalized together with bonuses from other sources like modules. Attention: This
change only impacts the targeting speed bonus from the Leadership skill, the
agility bonus from the Skirmish Warfare skill, and targeting range bonus from
the Information Warfare skill. The bonuses provided by the warfare link modules
have not changed.

No, this isn’t a first step in adjusting off-grid boosters
to only apply when on-grid, and it only affects the effects of leadership
skills themselves, not warfare links.
But it does influence the way some bonuses are applied, and that in
itself is interesting. I’m also
intrigued that it was referenced as a throwaway line in the patch notes, with
no real attention drawn to it.

Thursday, October 29, 2015

When CCP announced the capital changes, two thoughts struck
me immediately. The first was delight at
the prospect of supercapitals being more vulnerable through losing their ewar
immunity. As it currently stands, blobs
of supercapitals are incredibly difficult to pin down and fight, particularly
in lowsec. So difficult, in fact, that
they’re a broken fleet concept, far too strong.

The second thought was that Archon blobs would be a thing of
the past. A split between damage dealing
and repair abilities, coupled with the requirement for the new capital priests
being in triage – and unable to receive incoming reps – means capital fleets
will face the same choices and vulnerabilities as subcaps, albeit with a larger
tank and greater consequences.

Both of these mean, I hope, that supercap and capital fights
are more likely to result in some kills for each side, a critical factor
affecting the enjoyment level of all parties.
It’s no fun having your entire fleet dunked without even a single kill
to show for it. I suspect we’ve seen the
end of that for capital fights.

However, one thought that pointedly did not pop into my mind
was, “This is a solution to the N+1 problem!”
Part of that reason is because it clearly isn’t. The other part is because there is no “N+1
Problem”… not as folks tend to think of it.

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

This is just a quick note before a longer post detailing
some commentary stemming from the capital rebalance. I was away for the weekend, and was really
feeling the lack of a laptop that can sustain an Eve client. I read a lot of the news coming out of Vegas
on my phone… great for reading, not so great for taking notes.

I very nearly went to Eve Vegas this year. Ultimately, we decided to pursue buying a
house instead. But, listening to the fun
folks were having was very much a bittersweet experience of what could have
been. We’re eyeing Fanfest 2017,
though. Fingers crossed. You may have the opportunity to tell me
exactly what you think in person!

In the past couple days, I bought, outfitted, then sold
again a couple Thanatoses (unrelated to the capital rebalance details, though). I tried something with them, but changed my
mind and sold them for a slight profit.
I’ve run a good number of Blood Raider sites to loot enough accelerators
to keep my skill training boosted. And I
tallied my earnings from market trading, albeit primarily through PLEX trading:
3.6 billion profit and one PLEX for my account off of a 28 PLEX principle. Not bad.

And, in so doing, I’ve actually found a little enjoyment for
something I never thought I would… PvE.
Those Blood Raider sites really are a lot of fun, particularly when
someone drops on you. Is it just me, or
have pilots who typically don’t PvP been finding themselves fighting other
players in those sites?

I haven’t been able to do a lot of PvP, with most of my couple
hours a day clogged up with the “stuff” you need to do to enable your PvP and
keep the cash flow positive. The things
we do for enjoyment…

Friday, October 23, 2015

I'm just about ready to take the weekend off to visit family back in Pittsburgh, but before I went, I wanted to share some news about the capital rebalance from Eve Vegas. It looks like the Eve keynote contained some interesting tidbits, which will be expanded upon during the capital session tomorrow. What we know right now, encapsulated in a Reddit post and subsequent YouTube video is:

New capitals that specialize in logistics, with limited combat capabilities,

Even titans will be able to dock in XL citadels.

Refitting mid-combat will not be possible while you have a weapons timer.

Supercarriers will lose their immunity to electronic warfare.

Special weapons, Sickle-class doomsdays, which will swath through space attacking all ships in a single vector.

Another doomsday, tentatively called the Hand of God, which can teleport ships away from the battle field into a random spot in the same solar system; it simultaneously warp disrupts capitals.

All capitals will receive fleet hangars and fitting services.

Titans will be getting more variety of abilities.

All sorts of new capital-sized modules, including shield extenders, armor plates, neuts ranging from T1, to meta, to faction, to T2 varieties.

Existing capital weapons will be rebalanced to be useless against subcaps.

Capital remote repairs will only be effective when they're in triage.

Fighters are going to be replaced with squadrons, which will be unable to be repaired (because they're squadrons of ships, hp is measured in remaining members; "you can't rep what's dead").

Here's what we can assume:

Dreads will experience the least changes; they are characterized as having traditional weapon systems, as they do now.

Carriers may lose their remote rep bonuses, and could double-down on the fighter bonus. The new logistics capitals mean they'll likely lose much, if not all, of their logistics capabilities.

We'll each have a new capital skill to train for each race (taken with the skill sink being introduced, means CCP's following a hybrid "train more" and "sink sp" approach).

So let's get into the analysis of what are, admittedly, sparse details. But the details CCP has provided are enough to be tantalizing.

While I'm not going to be selling any assets or hedging any bets until the capital speech, some of these changes are well overdue, and great changes. Carriers being both fighter boats and logistics in one left them heavily overpowered, and the idea that these two strengths will be separated is tremendous. Now, CCP just needs to add an SMA-heavy capital with no offensive capability at all to be a space taxi (I'm talking 5 million m3 space baby!).

Likewise, refitting mid-fight took a lot of the risk out of flying capitals. Limiting this ability so that once you commit, you're locked in for the same length of time as aggro on a gate... under those circumstances, a minute is a lifetime. Firing choices have consequences now. When you engage an enemy fleet, you've got what you've got, and have to live with your choices, just like every other pilot in space.

And, finally, supercarriers - in fact all ships - losing ewar immunity... IT'S ABOUT TIME! Fighting supers required a single ship type in all cases - hictors - and that struck me as very much being against Eve's mantra of offering pilots choices. Ever since I heard about that ability, I thought to myself, "That's stupid." They already had the ability to fly a whole mess of fighters, and had all sorts of interesting bonuses and huge swaths of hp. Ewar immunity was just too much.

I'm eagerly anticipating news of tomorrow's speech, even though I'll be reading for it on my phone. I'm liking the variety of gameplay options these changes suggest. I can see the evidence of a lot of different thought tracks leading to this. From what I've seen, CCP is concerned about giving each capital a good role, new abilities, and new vulnerabilities to offset them.

Things are looking very good for capitals, based on these initial plans!

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

So, over the past couple days, I've been working on my revenue stream a bit more. I'm all set now, and to my delight, I discover a whole new set of activities to engage in: Blood Raider hunting!

I've said before how delighted I am about all the lore work being done by CCP. I love the story of Eve, and I'm definitely experiencing a deeper level of engagement because of the attention they're paying to it.

And now, we have some more fun activities to do.

I'm finding that the temporary Blood Raider Gauntlet sites are an enjoyable activity in lowsec. In many ways, it's exactly the kind of variety i was asking for in high-sec (the sites also spawn in high-sec, as well). Right now, the loot is actually quite expensive, though I suspect the price will drop as more people become aware of the kinds of fits you can use and they saturate their own characters with these injected boosters.

In particular, I'm really enjoying how this temporary opportunity presents a mix of PvP and PvE opportunities. Every site I've been in has been challenged at some point- either by a friendly or a hostile. You have to be on your guard when running these sites, for you should expect company. And that's just good fun, all around!

In the interests of ruining that market, allow me to share the fit that I've used successfully:

Sunday, October 18, 2015

I’m going to start by focusing on the positive. I’m sitting on 27 PLEX, and after about a
week of the price sitting at 1.2 bil, they’ve crept up 20 mil in the past
couple hours. More importantly, we’re
seeing spread compression – the buy and sell prices getting closer – as both
continue to rise, suggesting that the price will only continue to
increase. Indicators are great for my
profits!

"We can take it out as easily as we can put it in!"

The reason, of course, is the Exploring the Character Bazaar and Skill Trading dev blog. In a nutshell, CCP is
announcing a new NEX store item that will allow players to extract 500,000 sp
from their characters and sell it, as a unit, on the market. Effectively, this allows players to trade sp
to each other, drawing down their character’s stock in exchange for isk.

This, in and of itself, isn’t bad. Players have been asking for a means of
eliminating sp for skills they don’t use (though, admittedly, this attitude
tends to be a result of vestigial thinking back from when clone levels
existed). But added to this sp transfer
is diminishing return.

Once your character has more than 5 million sp – a paltry
sum equaling around three months of training – injecting transneural skill packets
results in the reduction of the amount of sp you actually gain. This loss is 20% for up to 50 million total
sp, and becomes increasingly onerous as your total sp increases.

Thursday, October 15, 2015

What is good? All that heightens
the feeling of power in man, the will to power, power itself. What is bad? All
that is born of weakness. What is happiness? The feeling that power is growing,
that resistance is overcome.

- Friedrich Nietzsche

Before reading this post, I’d like you to consider something for
me. Why do you PvP? What do you measure as success? In two months, what does improvement look
like for you? What satisfaction do you
derive from it?

What is your goal with your PvP?
Do you simply want to “kill all the things”, no matter the means? Do you remember certain fights more fondly
than others? Are you in it for
statistics only – kill/death ratios, efficiency, total kill amounts, total
value killed, etc?

What do you want?

I can’t answer that for you, but when you look at yourself honestly,
you’ll come to it yourself. Lying to
yourself won’t help… in fact, it’ll cause cognitive dissonance that might cause
you to waste large amounts of time on in-game experiences you don’t find
valuable. There really isn’t a wrong
answer.

Sunday, October 11, 2015

In the past year, CCP has released a lot of new
modules. I really haven’t been
interested in sov warfare since Aegis – the wind has been knocked out of the
conquest sails entirely – and I rarely fly anything larger than a cruiser these
days. That may change with the
battlecruiser rebalance, but I’ll likely dip my toe in to test their new
agility first, as that was my biggest problem with them.

There are some striking differences between life in the
Imperium and life in an independent alliance.
Most noticeable is the difference in content. With no sov to babysit through tedious timers
and no “strategic rating fleets” – yes, this is a thing – the activities the
alliance does are all centered around PvP.
And that PvP tends to involve rolling large to make up for a lack of
numbers. Our fleets tend to top out
around 50 people, but those 50 people are using every bit of their sp and
expensive doctrines to overcome any lack of numbers.

Forty Machariels can put out some serious damage. And within that expense comes another sort of
pleasure. It’s liberating to flying a
Machariel instead of a Caracal, and feeling the urgency in every action to
preserve your ship. The more expensive
you roll, the more powerfully you feel the dopamine rush as you head into
battle.

I can’t stress enough how much more enjoyable it is to fly
into a fight with a thin margin for error.
You can’t do that when your ship is nearly worthless (bloc doctrines) or
you have 300 other allies going into battle with you. Being the scrappy one is tougher, and the
victories are much sweeter as a result.
I’m heartily enjoying it.

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Yesterday, I was reading an article by Kyle Aparthos over at TMC talking about local mobility in Eve. His comments coalesced around some of my own opinions about jump fatigue and mobility. On the one hand, I absolutely agree that capital fleets should not be able to jump across the galaxy at a moment's notice to participate in fights the way they did before fatigue.

But, on the other hand, it doesn't make much sense for a capital to be stuck in one system for at least 5 minutes or - if you're doing it right - 50 minutes to clear your fatigue. That seems a bit ridiculous if you just want to jump to a nearby system. Fatigue was meant to reduce the effective projection of capital forces, not to destroy the tactical advantage of jump drives entirely.

Let's get one thing straight... it is tactically unfeasible for capitals to take gates to defend a whole constellation under fire. One set of bubbles can clog a capital fleet for 15-20 minutes, and when dealing with defense mechanics in place, that eliminates the value of capitals to attack multiple aggressing fleets. Small entities are effectively hamstrung to having to deploy their limited capitals in only one system, perhaps two, during a reinforcement cycle. That utterly defeats the purpose of the system in regards to allowing smaller entities to defend against larger ones.

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

There are certain skills in Eve that you absolutely must train if you're interested in PvP. These skills are different from those that you should train, like Sharpshooter V or Trajectory Analysis V. No, there are certain skills that you absolutely must train to attain even a basic modicum of positive experience with PvP. These are the skills like Weapon Upgrades V, your capacitor, powergrid, and CPU skills, and the base shield, armor, and hull skills.

One of those is Mechanics V. "But, Tal... hull is so incredibly unimportant... if you're in structure, you're already dead!

Not so, my friends. Not so.

A lot of people have survived with 1% structure before, so this situation isn't remarkable, but rather demonstrative. That 1% means the difference between repairing to get kills later in the night and having to take the long trek home in a pod, after which you may not go back out. 1% can mean the difference between a night of fun and a boring and uneventful slog back to reship.

In Eve, we live in the spaces between one-percents. Squeeze out every bit of base hp, capacitor, CPU, powergrid, and dps you can for those skills that affect all ships equally. Your crew will thank you when they don't die in the cold vacuum of space.

Sunday, October 4, 2015

I have a business trip this week, so I’ll be doing little
playing of Eve. And this past weekend,
I’ve been spending a lot of time with the family before I have to go. Fortunately, I’ll have plenty of time to
write.

One thing I did have time to fit in, other than some time in
an Oneiros on a fleet this weekend, was my initial station trading. I started with 20 bil, and set up about 40
buy orders to stock myself with some some fodder with a good buy/sell split.

I started buying a wide range of faction modules, ships, and
subsystems I’ve used in the past and whose value I have a good handle on. My buy orders started filling pretty well,
and I learned one cardinal rule of station trading: be careful picking items
that have a very low number of sales per day.
I got myself into a few items that had only a couple dozen resolved trades
per day, and while the buy/sell split was very good, I had to babysit them to
constantly refresh the sell price. With
one trade an hour, I didn’t have the luxury of being the third – or even second
– best option on the table. High-grade
implants fit into that category as well, and I was stuck with four High-Grade
Snake Deltas for nearly the whole week.

Lesson learned: I’m going to stick to items that sell at
least a hundred units a day.

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

As may be no surprise to readers, I'm a big fan of trying to improve myself through my life. In the same way RPG players try to amass new skills, abilities, and assets to take on the big boss, I believe you should constantly assemble more tools to help you thrive as an individual. Now, that "thriving" can mean different things to each individual, and the skills and situations you pursue are different from person to person.

What matters isn't that you seek a specific goal, of course, but rather that you regularly test yourself and throw yourself into the fire to be tempered by it. To me, everyone is born in a state of uselessness, and you harden and improve yourself through your experiences. It's not possible to "corrupt" or "ruin" yourself, and "purity" is synonymous with "untested" and "unimproved".

So, as one can imagine, in Eve, I genuinely look at losses and hardship as the very point of the game. Let the simple level-grinding, pushing buttons to earn candy, and going through a process to achieve a desired result rest with single-player games. Eve, at its core, to me is a live test environment, where the entire point is to implement your success strategies in an environment of friction, chaos, setbacks, and unpredictability. Eve is the chaos and the resistance pushing against your desires, and within that tension lies all of the satisfaction when you finally overcome and succeed despite all the forces arrayed against you.

I desperately value this element in Eve specifically because the rest of the world seems to be sliding more and more towards a sense of entitlement. Getting a college degree entitles you to a good job, or even A job, right? And if you don't earn six figures, why we better sue to have our money returned or our student loan debt forgiven. Never mind that your degree was in theoretical extraterrestrial sociology...

Or, when you forget to cancel your account by the start of the next billing cycle, you're entitled to have the charge pro-rated, right? Or you're entitled to not being offended... ever. Or you're entitled to play an online interactive game exactly the way you want without anyone interfering with your own ego-maniacal Vision playing out before you. These days, we deem ourselves as gods of our own lives.

I ran into one of these little Gods who decided to throw a tantrum last night, and he exemplified the quintessential bad habit of failed Eve players.

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

I’m not the richest person in the universe… comparatively. But I am able to purchase whatever ships I
want. Losing that Archon loaded with T2
and T3 ships set me back about 4 billion, which represented about 9% of my
liquid isk reserves. But, a sting like
that still hurt, particularly with PLEX prices rising.

So, though I can afford what I want to buy, I can’t do so indefinitely. Moon mining is tricky business, with only a
handful of profitable moons anymore and those all locked up by larger groups
(particularly in lowsec, where they’ve all migrated).

For a long time, I’ve wanted to try station trading. I’m told you can make a lot of isk that way. So, I figured I’d give it a go. One of my characters can run over a hundred
open market orders and has maxed skills to reduce transaction and market order
fees. I figure that’ll do for an initial
foray.

Saturday, September 26, 2015

When I began my Eve career, I made the mistake of trying to
jump into the largest ships I could. My
support skills were weak, and since I was doing mostly PvE, I saw Ravens as the
absolute best ships in the game. There
was little in-game information available to players that explained explosion
radius, signature radius, and damage application, so I figured the biggest guns
were simply more expensive, not focused in use.

My second ship loss was a Ferox (hilariously poorly fit, by the way…). I
loved my battlecruisers, proceeding to lose far more of them than I had any
business losing in the next several years.
Before Tengus, the Drake was my preferred ratting boat, like many.

And then, battlecruisers became fat and slow, and fell through
the fabric of the universe. Combined
with the cruiser buffs, battlecruisers were more of a liability than a benefit
to a fleet, and more often than not were simply tackled as stragglers in any
mobile gang.

The situation became so bad that prior to a week ago (when I
purchased some faction doctrine battleships), my hangar included exactly one
subcap larger than a cruiser, a hull-tanked Brutix Navy Issue.

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Ultimately, Eve is a game that thrives on the desire of each
player to log in and interact with the world.
The game is only as powerful and valuable to you as your engagement with
it.

If you read my last post, you may be wondering why I was moving a carrier full of ships by myself. The savvy among
you recognized it as a relocation of assets. That's not so surprising, right? Null-sec alliances are relocating all the time, and Goonswarm recently redeployed. Maybe I missed it and had to move on my own?

But, no. Taken with some of my comments recently about the state of null-sec, it's not as simple as all that. Increasingly, I'm finding being part of a null-sec alliance uninteresting, and after three months of building status-tension, I've decided I have to act. The choice was between leaving a corporation I love to find the content I want, or leaving the game
entirely. And I just can't do the latter.

So, my time in Repercussus has come to an end, as a direct result of the changes happening in null-sec. I'm doubling down on some lowsec "Adversity.".

Saturday, September 19, 2015

I have been very luck with my expensive ships. When I’ve flown carriers or dreads, I’ve done
so safely and without incident.

I use solid practices to move them around. When I light cynos, I do it off of only
stations with plenty of clearance in docking range. I give plenty of distance between my 5 km
sphere and all elements of the station, and have never bumped when I lit a cyno
myself. Before I hit the cyno, I do a
quick dscan to make sure no one is inbound, so I know I won’t wind up in some
random part of the system.

On very rare occasions, I’ll light a cyno in a system that
has no station. When I do, I watch the
traffic for a while before I jump, and if it looks to get a fair bit of through
traffic, I’ll use the self destruct cyno (setting your ship to self-destruct
and lighting the cyno only during the last 10-15 seconds of the cycle, so the
cyno is on grid for the barest amount of time), then immediately warp off to a
safe and cloak up.

And, generally, that works really well. So well, in fact, that I’ve never lost a
carrier. I’ve never lost a dread either,
but I don’t fly them frequently enough for that to be a habit, as much as a
lucky string of events.

So, I’d say I’m a very safe capital pilot. Or, at least, I was. My run ended yesterday. All tolled, the butcher’s bill was about 4.5
billion isk.

Thursday, September 17, 2015

A lot of times, you see a situation that’s almost too good to be true –
for instance, a veteran low-sec pirate in a corp that almost certainly has its
own logistics team traveling gate-by-gate in a Megathron. Sure, you may think you can tackle and
whittle down that Megathron, and things are looking good when you get him into
half-shield and he still hasn’t called in help. So, you inch a bit closer to ensure you’re
under his guns, and he hits you with dual webs and a scram as local fills up.

This isn’t an article about that kind of bait. It’s obvious he wanted to be caught, and you
should feel bad for falling for it (well, okay, only a little bad, as you were
willing to fight and some pilots really do pilot around solo in exposed ships).

But on the other hand, a pilot who’s trying to bait you represents a
pilot who thinks he’s in charge of the situation. And as you know from reading this blog,
thinking you know something is usually the first step in a great fall. Sometimes, walking into a trap with either a
firm exit strategy or a means of turning the tables on your opponent is worth
the risk.

Saturday, September 12, 2015

We’ve now had quite some time to see how AegisSov (I’m going
with the generic name now, as there are too many good ones to pick from,
including FozzieSov, Space Wands, and PotterSov) operates in a real-space
environment. Goons did their ProviSmash thing, demonstrating – if nothing
else – the speed a which player assets can be wiped away. The Russians protested the whole thing, which isn’t
surprising since they were buying up renter space just as everyone else was
getting rid of it.

The devs have clearly been listening to player reactions. They made some modifications to the capture
times and base capture status in Galatea. Proof is building that the devs genuinely want AegisSov to be enjoyable, realize the limitations in this current iteration, and want to create a
balanced yet engaging experience. That’s
incredibly reassuring, and shows that they haven't slipped into old, pre-Incarna habits as some had feared.

At the same time, AegisSov is here to stay and CCP isn't pulling back from weakening the need for coalitions and
encouraging chaos in null-sec. By this time next year, I think we'll be there.

Player engagement appears to be picking up, although a lot
of the really capable PvP organizations are moving to low-sec from null. Whether that’s a temporary reset or not is up
for debate, but it’s happening. Low-sec
is booming as a result, albeit not for the reasons we’d like (the health of
low, but rather, the perceived unhealthiness of null).

Some time ago, I predicted that hunters would leave sovereignty in favor of attacking sov holders without facing retaliation. By and large, we're seeing that. Corporations, players, and whole alliances are leaving for low-sec. AegisSov makes sovereignty an isk-generating resource, with the
obligation to spend most of your time cultivating indexes and repelling
attacks. That just doesn’t suit with the
attitude of pre-Aegis null players, and they're adapting... by leaving null.

I’ve spoken before about the way tension and discomfort build up for several months before players make a change (moving to a new corp, moving an existing corp to a new area of space, or following some other paradigm). We’re thickly in the midst of that tension-building stage, but as the months roll by, I’m certain we’ll see more and more people leaving null-sec alliances to join pirate and “aggressor” corporations.

And this may all be part of the design… to undermine the
former main draw of null alliances to weaken and split them before adding in
the added benefits CCP promised. And yet, CCP still has a desire to keep those players in the
game, and has a long-stated goal of reducing hassle without reducing the
advantage of organization and player experience or increasing the safety.

Friday, September 11, 2015

I've been spending a lot of time recently thinking about what the essential elements of a successful corporation are. I can name more than a dozen factors that can lead to success and a variety of content, but which ones are absolute necessities?

One of those that I continue to value highly is having a group of dedicated FCs. Note the qualification... I used the word dedicated, not excellent, successful, brilliant, or innovative. The characteristic that seems to be most important is the willingness to consistently lead fleets.

Corporations thrive on stability... bring able to reliably provide or enable meaningful content that the membership wants. That could mean mining fleets, mission running fleets, or PvP fleets. It could mean counter-entosis fleets for null-sec or escalation fleets for wormholes. Regardless, every corporation needs players willing to stand up and take responsibility for guiding others around.

The beauty of Eve is that players can create their own content; all you need is a ship and a goal. But to have a strong, stable corporation, you need to provide something which compels players to choose YOUR corporation over all the other options out there. That might be a unique offering, culture, objective, or combination of all of the above. It might be being very accepting of a variety of playstyles, as Rixx Javix's Stay Frosty is, or it might mean having a narrow focus that attracts a certain kind of player. You have to provide some content that satisfies player needs.

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

No one gets PvP right the first time. No one gets PvP right the 50th time, either, for that matter. Being able to PvP even halfway decently (I claim nothing more!) is as much about knowing the rock-paper-scissors of ship types as it is about being able to internalize the Flow of an engagement. I've spoken about flow before, and may get around to doing so again at some point.

To me, there is no greater test of individual skill than competing against someone else. The only match for a human brain devising strategy is another human brain. We're a wily bunch, filled with the unexpected. It's specifically because other pilots can't be predicted with certainty that PvP carries so much thrill. In retrospect, we can easily ascribe causes for our failures and successes, but in the heat of the moment, we're met only with probabilities which we need to do our best to narrow down. PvP in Eve is a very cerebral thing, with much of the result being decided before the first shot is ever fired.

But you don't get to that point without picking yourself up after a failure and trying again. And that's true for engagements of all sizes, from solo roaming right on up to large fleets. But let me give you a recent example from a small gang roam my corp's allies undertook.

Monday, September 7, 2015

One of the keys to successfully killing targets in Eve is
being willing to jump into an engagement.
If you aren’t willing to take action, you certainly aren’t going to kill
anything. But the other half of that
equation – patience – is equally important.

The process of finding and successfully killing targets is a difficult one, with a number of steps. Pilots aren't keen on being killed, so they usually do things to avoid you. Warping off, staying aligned, fitting WCS, operating within deadspace or mission sites... anything to make it more difficult for you to find them initially.

When you initially enter system, most folks do a quick dscan to see what's around. Depending on the location of the anoms and faction warfare plexes, you may decide to warp deeper into the system or even decide to warp directly to an ice or asteroid belt. That's risky, though. You need to break your jump cloak, and in so doing, may tip your hand to the local residents.

Obviously, it's easier to catch targets in a low-sec system - which is used to seeing pilots entering and leaving - than a null-sec system where only hostile roamers and data/relic hounds tend to go. And a busy system, ironically, is usually more lucrative than one with few pilots.

As you warp around, you start to get a picture of which ships are where. Narrow dscan is your friend. Start with different ranges to narrow them down, then switch to a 5 degree scan in the direction of celestials within that range band. But all of that takes time, and every second you're in space is another second you're being seen, reported on intel, and seeing targets slip through your fingers.

But sometimes, it doesn't matter how long you're in system. Some pilots are afk. Sometimes, staying put can give your enemies a chance to form up a response fleet. And some times, you get a gift handed to you on a platter. But none of it happens unless you're patient. And thorough.

Friday, September 4, 2015

Assumptions are almost unavoidable in Eve. On the one hand, we have to make assumptions
to simplify the amount of information available to us as pilots. But taking too
many shortcuts can be disasterous. The
challenge is in hitting that golden mean between information paralysis and
hasty action.

That’s a tough skill to achieve, and even after you achieve
it, it tends to come and go. Take, for
instance, this loss I suffered today.

Yup, that’s an insta-blap Tornado. And yes, the moment that interceptor (an
interceptor!) landed on top of me and my guns failed to hit him at a 0.01 rad
transversal, I knew it was all over. The
trick of flying an alpha ship is in not letting them get close to me.

At the time, local consisted of me, a corp mate, a blue, and
one other pilot I had seen enter system through my gate in in a Prowler. This had been that Prowler’s second trip
through, so I figured he was just doing some transport runs. He was in a five-man corp of which he was the
CEO. That smelled distinctly of a
private alt corp for industry. No threat
there.

Thursday, September 3, 2015

Talk about responsive GMs!
I had done some speculating about the average number of accounts per player
after the alt-login issue this past Tuesday, and came up with a number of 1.7
per player. This number was based on a
snapshot, so of course I can’t put any great authority to it, but I found it
interesting. I based the number on how
many accounts were logged in immediately after the fix, compared to those logged
in beforehand.

In no time flat, CCP Quant put together some statistics to understand how many accounts players maintain (not logged-in numbers,
though):

Obviously, the giant story to this graph is the number of
players who maintain only one account. I
admit, I’m surprised that 2 out of every 3 players have only one account. CCP Quant mentioned that the data isn’t
absolutely accurate, but if they published these numbers, I imagine they’re
somewhat comfortable with the accuracy.
I’m going to have to keep that stat in mind when I write my articles.

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

So, there’s an interesting development happening in Eve
right now. The client is bugged with an
error which causes a second client opened on the same computer to crash. The result is that players are only able to
log in a single account at a time. This
started after downtime, and CCP is aware of the problem and actively working on
repairing it.

But this presents a rare opportunity to gain a little
insight into the true player base, rather than the PCU or active account base. How many people are really playing Eve
online?

At 12:00 Eve time, we had 7,700 players logged in to the
game today during this glitch. CCP was
able to fix the problem by around 12:30, after which players restarted their
clients and began to log in their alts.
By 12:50, the player count was up to 12,145. At 13:00, we were at 13,068.

Monday, August 31, 2015

Normally, when I’m engaging in PvP, I’m the pilot traveling
from system to system, hunting for targets.
Deciding what fights I want to take and hoping my target’s still there
when I land. A lot of that happens in
faction warfare plexes. Bring the
aggressor, I tend to slide into a lot of situations that are marginal
engagements at best. That’s how you end
up losing some ships. But it’s great
fun.

Normally, I’m a big proponent of the importance of
aggression. If you take the first
action, you force your opponent to react to a situation of your creation, not
his. Many times, you can take the tempo
of the fight and keep it the whole time.
That is, if you’ve chosen your fights well and accurately understand
your strengths and abilities.

But recently, I’ve started to explore – and really enjoy –
the pleasure of being the target who other people choose. With my faction warfare alt, I’ve really
enjoyed being the “victim”.

And I’m starting to see some advantages in giving up the
initiative. Or, rather, understanding
that one can set up the circumstances favorably before the first action is
taken, stealing the tempo by good preparation.

Thursday, August 27, 2015

When you commit to establishing a voice and a tone in a
community, there are a lot of advantages.
People recognize you when you fly through space. You gain the platform to share your thoughts
and – importantly – improve them by having your readers point on where you’re
wrong. It’s a nice thing, most of the
time.

But, you also make a promise to speak honestly about the
things that affect you, your mission, and your readers’ trust in you. Sometimes, that means you need to address the
giant elephant sitting in the room, even though you may not want to.

If you fail to deliver on those expectations, you risk
alienating any credibility you have.
Sometimes, you need to comment on major happenings in Eve even though it
can be awkward. This is one
of those times.

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Some eagle-eyed readers may have noticed an advertisement on
the corner of my blog for Eve Lotteries.
Earlier this month, I had occasion to try out their service. They gave me 10 million isk to play a couple
blinks and I ended up walking away with a Brutix Navy Issue and two
Hookbills. Not a bad take, all tolled!

Eve Lotteries began in the wake of the Somer Blink
shutdown. A real-life web developer,
Thorr VonAsgard, was virtually addicted to blinking, and when one of his favorite
pastimes was taken away, he decided that instead of complaining, he’d do
something about it. Eve Lotteries was
born, a site operating in a similar fashion to Somer Blink, but with a far more
appropriate and descriptive name. It
went live on February 18 of this year.

Fast forward to this month, when Eve Lotteries surpassed two
trillion in payouts provided. It’s a
huge threshold they've reached very quickly, and they’ve decided to celebrate with a host of giveaways
totaling 40 Bil isk, including a supercarrier and 14 separate billion-isk
giveaways.

I encourage you to visit Eve Lotteries to get your piece of this prize
pool. The celebration ends on August 30!

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Ah, logi-bros. The people who
love them the most want to be them the least.
Logi doesn’t appear on killmails, despite how much they help the
fleet. And while a combat ship stands at
least a chance of surviving if they have to disconnect mid-fleet, logi ships
tend to be utterly helpless when traveling alone. Sure, it’s a role that requires you to be
actively thinking and responding to the battle – particularly if you’re a logi
anchor – but when the fleet loses, you’re the second person (behind the FC)
that your fleet blames.

But they’re absolutely essential to any fleet, right? How many doctrines have you seen that won’t
undock without at least 20% of the fleet flying logi ships? In small gangs (though, you could argue that
“gangs” have no logi, while “fleets” do), the presence of even one more logi
can make the difference between victory and defeat. I’ve seen fleets with three logi successfully
brawl fleets with only two without taking any losses. Every logi matters.

Only… let’s look at what logistics really accomplishes: it repairs
damaged ships to keep them alive for longer.
When working correctly, it denies the enemy a kill. When it works highly effectively, it denies
the enemy any kills at all.

Thursday, August 20, 2015

For the past several months, I’ve been hearing how null-sec players are
“risk adverse”. It’s the insult du jour
ever since the topic of sovereignty rebalancing and FozzieSov in particular
were raised. According to the narrative
of those who use this term, null-sec players are too afraid of loss to engage
in the behavior they would prefer, and as a result, like frightened sheep, they
herd together in great big coalitions and collections of allies. This, in turn, results in the “big blue
donut” view of null-sec, in which everyone “who matters” got together to form
cartel-like collusion agreements to avoid their possible risk.

This view of Eve downplays any possible mechanic-reliant issues with
the game and instead places the blame on players taking actions out of fear or
a desire for safety, resulting in a terrible experience for null-sec
players. The players are to blame, not
the game. In fact, only a few greedy
players are to blame, the coalition-leaders who serve as a star chamber pulling
the strings and forcing everyone to dance to their tune.

In this case, “risk adverse” players are the great evil facing Eve… if
only we could change the attitude of players, the reality of a boring null-sec
would change.

Sunday, August 16, 2015

I’m an odd sort. I spend my game
time like Diogenes with his lamp, looking for an honest engagement. I’m very particular about the kind of PvP
that I enjoy. I try to keep in mind that
I’m intentionally choosy about my content.
I want high-quality content, and I’m willing to spend a lot of time to
achieve it. On the other hand, there’s a
lot of PvP content I find of little value.
Thousands of those kills don’t balance out even one great fight.

But I wanted to share a little about myself to help you understand what
I mean.

Friday, August 14, 2015

Boy, I can sure pick the times to be away from the game, can’t I? Or rather, my laptop can (status update:
still waiting on Best Buy, whereas Amazon got me my components in two
days. No wonder why BB is dying).

First, we had jump fatigue. While we had some change
aversion, it also brought very real frustration from logistics and industry pilots, as well as the penalty to subcap movement when one wasn't needed. And yet, it did accomplish the
Balkanization of supercaps, which was a very good – and necessary – thing for
the game. Lowsec entities, in
particular, cheered the changes.

Then, we had FozzieSov. At
first, the system was very bad, then it improved as CCP
released revisions, and then it launched and sapped the soul right out of
every defender. The process as structured isn’t working as intended.
One of CCP’s stated goals – a noble one – was to make
the results of sov battles more accurately reflect control of the grid. CCP envisioned small gangs
holding the line and killing cross-entosis ships, with ECM battles and a
delicate interplay of various factors as forces jockeyed for control. In reality, we got lone trolls and piles of nodes attackers never intended on
contesting.

And then, apparently the developers went on vacation right after
releasing FozzieSov.

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